Lithuanian President issues new statement on border closure with Belarus over Wagner

According to the US CNN channel on September 5, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausea said the need to close the border with Belarus is becoming less and less relevant as the threat of infiltration from the Wagner private military group is weakening.

“This is a matter of a few weeks ago when it was quite clear about the threats when Wagner forces moved to Belarus and when there was information that some members of the Wagner group appeared at the Gozha training area, which is very close to the Lithuanian-Polish border,” President Gitanas Nausėda told Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.

Poland held a meeting with Baltic states in Warsaw last week to address recent concerns that Wagner forces were massing along the Belarusian border after thousands of mercenaries were said to have arrived in Belarus following the failed uprising.

At a joint press conference during those meetings, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński made it clear that the countries were ready to “act together if there is a critical situation regardless of whether it is on the Polish, Lithuanian or Latvian border.”

However, on September 5, the Lithuanian president pointed to signs that the situation along the border was beginning to stabilize, saying that he had “no specific information that members of the Wagner group are near our border or are trying to destabilize the situation at the border.”

Questions have arisen about the future of the Wagner group based in Belarus following the death of the group's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash last month.

Asked whether the prospect of completely closing the border with Belarus was no longer appropriate, the Lithuanian leader replied: “I think we can say so.”

“If the situation becomes complicated, we will act together. If the situation remains the same or even more stable, we will have to act differently. No one wants to close the border again just for fun,” Nausėda added.